Quader urges AL aspirants to follow electoral code of conduct

Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader on Thursday called upon the party’s nomination aspirants to follow the electoral code of conduct as the Election Commission has declared the parliamentary election schedule.

“I am giving directives to nomination aspirants of Awami League,” he told a press conference after a meeting of the AL Secretariat at the party president’s Dhanmondi political office, BSS reports.

Quader, also road transport and bridges minister, said electoral code of conduct would be applicable for the nomination aspirants just after the announcement of election schedule. Ministers, MPs and public representatives should be careful about obeying the electoral code of conduct, he added.

He said Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) KM Nurul Huda announced the election schedule in an address to the nation on state-run television and radio this evening.

Quader said distribution of application papers for getting party nomination will begin from 10am tomorrow (Friday). Application papers will be distributed in eight divisional cities through eight booths, he added.

The AL general secretary said the party’s joint general secretaries and organisational secretaries will monitor the application distribution activities in the eight divisions.

He said the mass-contact programme of AL ahead of the election will be further strengthened keeping the electoral code of conduct in mind.

About the dialogues, the AL general secretary said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina arranged dialogues with political parties for holding a free, fair, neutral, peaceful and participatory general election. The initiative will remain as a milestone in the country’s history of democracy, he added.

Quader said the country’s no other head of the government took such an initiative.

The people of all strata of life have praised Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for holding the dialogues, he said, adding that foreign diplomats, heads of governments of different democratic countries and the United Nations also commended the initiative of Sheikh Hasina.